An Oregon man has been found guilty of murdering a college student in 1980 after he was linked to the case decades later by DNA genetic genealogy and chewing gum he discarded.
Robert Plympton, 60, was found guilty of one count of first-degree murder in the death of Barbara Mae Tucker, who was a 19-year-old student at Mt. Hood Community College when she was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and beaten to death near campus four decades ago, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said Monday in a news release.
For years, no one knew who killed Tucker.
She was killed on Jan. 15, 1980, and her body was found the following morning in a wooded area between Kane Road and a school parking lot in Gresham, Oregon, by students arriving for class, the district attorney’s office said.
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Barbara Mae Tucker. (KGW)
While her case was cold for years, investigators gave the case a fresh look with advances in DNA technology.
In 2000, DNA swabs taken during her autopsy were sent to the Oregon State Police Crime Lab for analysis, and a DNA profile was made from the swabs.
Then in 2021, a genealogist from Parabon Nanolabs identified Plympton as the likely “contributor to the unknown DNA profile developed in 2000,” the release said.
Police in Gresham found that Plympton was living in Troutdale and began to surveil him.
When they observed him spit out a piece of chewing gum onto the ground, detectives collected the gum and submitted it to the crime lab for analysis.
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“The lab determined the DNA profile developed from the chewing gum matched the DNA profile developed” from Tucker’s 2000 DNA swabs, the district attorney’s office said.
Plympton was ultimately arrested on June 8, 2021. He had pleaded not guilty to charges of murder.
Multnomah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kirsten Snowden previously said there was no evidence that Tucker and Plympton knew each other, The Oregonian reported.
Following a bench trial from Feb. 26 to March 15, Judge Amy Baggio found Plympton guilty of murder and “four counts of different theories of murder in the second degree,” the district attorney’s office announced.
Though the medical examiner determined Tucker had been sexually assaulted, Plympton was not convicted of rape or sexual abuse because prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt it happened while he was alive, the judge said, according to The Associated Press.
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He remains in custody in Multnomah County with sentencing set for June 21.
NBC News has reached out to an attorney for Plympton for comment.
Watch the king tides crash against the Nye Beach shoreline on the Oregon Coast on Saturday, January 11, 2020.
David Davis, Statesman Journal
A woman died when she sustained critical injuries after falling into the Devil’s Punchbowl on the Oregon coast near Newport on June 3, the Depoe Bay Fire District said.
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First responders were dispatched to the Devil’s Punchbowl State Natural Area after receiving reports of a person falling into the park’s famous collapsed sea cave at about 12:25 p.m., officials said in a release.
Firefighters rappelled to provide life support care after first responders determined the woman had sustained critical injuries. Fire district officials decided to call the U.S. Coast Guard and request a helicopter to hoist her out of the cave.
The Coast Guard helicopter lifted the woman from the cave and landed in the parking lot of the state park, where firefighter-paramedics provided care while she was flown to a trauma center in the Willamette Valley. Officials did not say which hospital they took the woman to.
The woman, whom officials did not name, died at the hospital.
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Eder Campuzano is the local news editor for the Statesman Journal. He can can be reached at ecampuzano@statesmanjournal.com. Find him on Bluesky at @ederc.bsky.socialor Threads @ederc
PORTLAND, Ore. — A man accused of killing several women and dumping their bodies in the Portland area was arraigned Wednesday on a fifth murder charge.
Jesse Calhoun’s defense attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in a Portland courtroom where victims’ family members were present. The hearing, during which Calhoun remained silent, came after he was indicted last week on the most recent second-degree murder charge over the death of Ashley Real, 22, in 2023.
Calhoun has now been charged with five counts of second-degree murder for five victims, along with four counts of abuse of a corpse. The victims’ bodies were found over multiple months in early 2023, sparking concern at the time that a serial killer might be targeting young women in the region.
Calhoun was previously indicted in the deaths of Kristin Smith, 22; Charity Perry, 24; Bridget Webster, 31; and Joanna Speaks, 32.
He remains in custody at the Multnomah County Detention Center. His defense attorneys declined to comment.
Real, Perry, Webster and Smith were found in northwestern Oregon, while Speaks was found near an abandoned barn in southwestern Washington. Their bodies were found in a roughly 100-mile radius, including in wooded areas and in a culvert.
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Jose Real, Ashley Real’s father, was in tears as he spoke with reporters after the hearing. He recalled memories of watching her grow up and playing with her brother.
“I never thought or imagined that my family would experience something like this,” he said through a Spanish interpreter. “She had a heart of gold.”
Masciell Real, Ashley’s sister, also spoke through tears.
“I think being in that courtroom today and being able to see him, and know that he is behind bars now, it takes the weight off my shoulders knowing that he isn’t around and free to cause any harm to any other women out there,” she said. “But it also doesn’t take away the fact that my sister isn’t here anymore.”
Relatives of other victims were also present.
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“We’ve all experienced the worst thing that could ever happen to you, and it’s incredibly hard to see one of the other families hurt the way we do,” said Melissa Smith, mother of Kristin Smith.
Jose Real previously told The Associated Press that he had called police in November 2022 after his daughter showed up crying at his Portland home, saying she had been choked by Calhoun. She had marks on her throat, he said, and he took her to a hospital.
Real said at the time that an initial police report was taken but that the case was then transferred to a different jurisdiction and it was difficult to reach those overseeing it. Details of the attack were first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
His daughter’s body was found in May 2023 by a man who was fishing in a pond southeast of Portland.
Calhoun was arrested in June 2023 on unrelated parole warrants and then indicted in 2024 and 2025 in the other four women’s deaths. The initial indictment came weeks before Calhoun was due to be released from state prison, where he was returned in 2023 to finish serving a four-year term for assaulting a police officer, trying to strangle a police dog, burglary and other charges.
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He was initially released in 2021, a year early, because he helped fight wildfires in 2020 under a prison firefighting program. Gov. Tina Kotek revoked the commutation in 2023 when police began investigating him in the deaths.
The University of Oregon’s Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to approve a $1.55 billion operating budget for the next fiscal year.
But they asked university leadership to return with an amended proposal by Dec. 15, when more details about future budget cuts will be known.
FILE — The Board of Trustees recently approved next year’s budget for the University of Oregon. The vote comes several weeks after the school’s president announced that he wants the university to reduce its annual budget as revenues and out-of-state enrollment decline.
Brian Bull / KLCC
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The vote comes several weeks after University of Oregon President Karl Scholz announced that he wants the school to reduce its annual budget by around $65 million.
At a trustees meeting Monday, Scholz said the estimated budget shortfall for next year is just around $23 million. But he said out-of-state enrollment is below historical norms for the second year in a row, and it’s unlikely to bounce back.
“One year can be an aberration. Two years is a pattern,” said Scholz. “And I believe we have to treat it as a new reality.”
Scholz said in May that discussions about the budget would happen over a six-month period. He said no final decisions about cuts would be made over this summer.
On Monday, UO Senate President Dyana Mason told trustees that the Senate had approved a new process to allow for community feedback in the cost-cutting process.
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Mason said the provost will work with the deans on budget proposals, finding “clear rationale” for why programs are considered for elimination.
The provost would then bring those proposals to the Senate Committee for Academic Modifications—which includes staff, faculty and students—for feedback.
Once the plans are nearly finalized, the Senate could then hold a period for public comment.
Mason told trustees that a six-month timeline is better than the three months that frustrated some staff last year, but she recommended taking however much time is necessary.
“The worst situation would be rushing forward to make decisions without appropriate evidence, data, feedback from the people that are most in the know about the impact on our students,” said Mason.
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UO’s Board of Trustees Chair Steve Holwerda said that every week that university delays the decisions could cost them millions of dollars.
Nathan Wilk is a reporter with the KLCC newsroom.This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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